Shadow Guard 2: Vacation
by RMVHXtreme
Summary: With the evasive outlaw Mason Richards finally down for the count, X, Azalea, Darius, Minerva and Erika are tagging along with the Shadow Guard to spend a whole week in Ebott City, the secret home of all monsters. But when you've messed with someone who already wanted you dead, it's probably best to never let your guard down. Rated T for violence, censored cursing, and romance.
1. Road Trip

**Kept you waiting, huh? (Sorry!)**

 **Welcome back, fanbase! Some of you guys have been sounding like you want to see what happens next, so here we are again with episode 2 of Shadow Guard!**

 **One thing I'm doing differently this time around is writing from multiple different first person points of view. This should allow the story to get more interesting and create a little more suspense. You guys let me know if it works for you.**

 **Also, this may be obvious, but if you haven't read episode 1 yet, you may want to do that to get a better idea of what's going on here.  
**

 **...By the way, I did make an Ask the Shadow Guard, but I took it down because too many people were telling me to quit breaking rules. Sorry about that.**

 **Now enjoy!**

* * *

 **X**

Road trips can be...rather enjoyable, if you're not the one driving.

Take this one: currently I'm sitting next to Azalea in the backseat of Erika's car, with Erika driving. We're on highway right behind Darius's car (also containing Minerva), which is following behind the Shadow Guard's car. What's so great about this trip so far? Well, I'm right next to my girlfriend the whole time and I'm listening to nightcore, plus the scenery isn't half bad. Oh yeah, and you _cannot_ forget our destination: Ebott City in New York, home of all monsters.

"Hey X, what are you listening to?" Azalea asks me.

"Eh, just some nightcore I downloaded from YouTube," I answer.

"Really? Awesome! Can I listen?"

"Yeah, sure. Hey Erika, do you happen to have an auxiliary cord by any chance?"

"I do," Erika replies. "It should be in my bag, in the small front pocket."

I reach forward into the passenger seat, grab Erika's backpack, and search the small front pocket for her auxiliary cord. Once it's plugged into my phone, I hand the other end to Erika, who plugs it into the car radio. Yeah, this is much better.

"Yay! This is one of my favorites!" Azalea says, right before we both start singing along.

After about a minute, we're interrupted by our walkie-talkie. "Guys, Minerva and I are ready for a bathroom stop."

 **Darius**

Darn road trip. Since Erika and I are the only ones who can drive, I'm stuck driving the entire time. And I told X that speeding is totally legal as long as you don't crash and you don't get caught, but he and Erika still won't let me, so now we're not going to make it to our hotel until 10:00 at night. There's no way I'd make it if I didn't have Minerva here next to me.

"Again?" Astigmatism's voice comes through the walkie-talkie.

Minerva grabs the walkie-talkie from my hand. "Hey, it's not my fault that I have to drink a lot of Coke to keep myself from dying of boredom!"

"Fine, but hurry up. We've got a lot of distance to cover today. The next gas station's coming up in about four minutes."

I keep driving behind the Shadow Guard until we get to an exit lane and take it to get off the freeway and to a gas station. Once we're parked, Minerva and I step out of the car and meet X, Azalea and Erika at the door.

This gas station seems kinda quiet, but I guess that doesn't matter. We all head over to the bathroom and do our thing. When we're all done, X goes down one of the aisles.

"Dude, we gotta get going!" I say to him.

"Just a second, I gotta see if there are any good deals on snacks," he replies.

Of course. X is really careful about spending money, though he doesn't hesitate on buying anything priced lower than he thinks it's worth.

"Uh, guys?" Azalea says, looking out the window. "I think we need to leave right now."

 **Azalea**

"What's going on, Zay?" Minerva asks. I point outside to a man who's looking through the windows of Erika's car and holding a crowbar.

"****, I forgot to hide my iPad," Minerva curses. "EVERYONE GET OUTSIDE NOW!"

Minerva grabs my arm and pulls me towards the door, where Darius and Erika are already heading outside, X following close behind us. Once outside, we run up to the man.

"HEY!" Minerva shouts at the man as she lets go of my arm. I step back towards X. He's pretty good at handling evil strangers.

Darius hands his keys to Minerva. " _Start the cars,_ " he whispers before turning towards the crowbar guy. "Uh, hey dude, uh...you got a GPS or anything on you? 'Cause I'm totally lost in your eyes right now."

What on Earth is he saying? He's going to get hurt!

X, Erika and I head back to our car, while Minerva sneaks around to Darius's. On our way back, I hear the crowbar guy yell something obscene at Darius. Then, after we get inside the car and Erika starts it, Darius starts to back away from the crowbar guy, until it looks like he's about to swing his crowbar at him! Right at the last second, Darius turns on his magical watch and sprints over to the driver's seat of his car in half a second using the power of his orange soul.

Erika immediately starts moving the car over to the road, while the Shadow guard does the same with their car. Then Darius backs his car right into the crowbar guy, who falls down and starts holding his head in pain. Before he can get up and chase after us, we're already back on the road.

"Wasteeeeed!" Minerva exclaims through the walkie-talkie.

"Can we be careful not to hurt anyone next time?" I say back. "We could have sent that guy to the hospital!"

"Come on! He deserved it, he tried to break into our cars and beat up Darius!"

"Maybe, but I still think it's best if we don't hurt anyone unless we really need to."

"Fine, we'll be careful."

 **Minerva**

That was awesome. I'm almost glad someone tried to break into our cars now.

"Did you seriously just try to flirt with that guy?" I ask Darius.

"Well, I needed to draw his attention for a few seconds, and I thought, what better way to do that than to say the oldest, cheesiest pickup line in the book?" he replies.

"You really are a professional idiot," I tell him, smiling and punching his arm.

"Need an idiot to make you look less stupid? Call Darius Grant at 1-800-DUM-DUMB!" Darius is a pretty funny guy, one of the many reasons I love him.

Someone from the Shadow Guard checks in through the walkie-talkie (look, I can't tell their voices apart through this thing, okay?). "Alright, we called the police, so hopefully that criminal will get apprehended soon."

"Nice!" X responds. "You guys are good!"

"Well, when you do this sort of thing for three years, it almost becomes second nature."

"Okay, how much longer until we get there?" I ask them.

"About four hours, provided we don't make any more stops."

Well crap. Looks like I'm going to be on another YouTube marathon here for the next few hours.

The rest of the drive doesn't really get any more interesting. We end up eating a lot of snacks so we don't have to stop for dinner...and then I fall asleep.

 _"Die, stormtroopers!" I shout while running through the corridors of a spaceship and shooting at stormtroopers. Suddenly, a shot from one of their blasters trips me and I fall to the floor._

 _A man in a tuxedo walks up to me. "Congratulations!" he says, holding up a shiny, golden plaque. "You are officially the first person to ever take a direct shot from a stormtrooper!"_

 _Smiling, I take the plaque and walk out the door backstage to my limo._

"Hey babe? We're there."

I sit up slowly and look out the window to see us parked in front of a decent-sized hotel late at night. Finally, we're there.

"Alright, we'll give you guys cash to get a room for the night," says the Shadow Guard.

"What about you guys?" X asks.

"We'll stay out here in the car. Don't worry about us, we've done this several times before."

"That still seems sort of cramped," Erika says. "Would any of you like to stay in my car?"

"Thanks, but we need to stay behind the dark windows."

Now I'm finally ready to get out of the car, grab my suitcase from the trunk, and go inside the hotel.

 **Erika**

I lead my friends into the hotel and pay for a room. Then we quietly ride the elevator up to the third floor to find our room. The second I unlock the door, Minerva barges in, drops her suitcase and flops down on the nearest queen-size bed.

"This feels so good," she comments, face-down in the covers. "I am not moving for the next eight hours."

"Um, okay, but where are the rest of us going to sleep?" Azalea asks.

"Hmm, well..." X starts, "...there are only two beds, and...it's not like this is a school field trip or anything, so..."

Minerva's head spins to the side. "Darius, get over here!"

"I brought a sleeping bag, I'll sleep on the floor," I announce, wanting some space.

"But no doing anything weird!" X calls out. "We're all only dating or single, and there's still five people in this room."

"We won't go too crazy on each other," Darius reassures him. "You and Azalea just enjoy yourselves over there."

I grab my pajamas and lock myself in the bathroom to get ready to go to sleep, while the others continue doing...relationship things, I suppose. While I'm happy that they've already found possible soul mates, I just don't feel like I'm ready to deal with the emotional stress and complications of having a significant other. And really, being around four platonic friends all the time is a little much already.

Once I'm out of the restroom, Azalea takes her turn while I get settled in to sleep by the window, followed by X. But then once X is about to go to bed, he gets down on the ground and does thirty push-ups. He does that sometimes as sort of a confidence booster.

"Wow, that was a lot!" Azalea compliments him.

"Thanks," X replies. "Read on the internet that exercising right before bed helps you sleep, 'cause it makes your muscles relax."

"Are you sure you're not just showing off?"

"Okay, maybe that was part of it, but that's a real life hack!"

"You think _you're_ good?" Minerva challenges. "I'll show you a lot of push-ups!"

Minerva then gets on the floor and does thirty-five push-ups, though I doubt she'd be able to do any more than that.

"Crud," X remarks. "I gotta do more of those, I've been able to do forty before."

"Guys, we've been driving all day," I tell them. "Can we just go to sleep now?"

"Alright," X responds. "Good night."

I shut my eyes and it gets quiet, though I can still hear X and Azalea whispering to each other a little. Right now I just need to forget about the difficult road trip and quartering conditions and remember why we're doing this: to see the hometown of all the world's monsters. I'm sure it'll all be worth it once we finally get there.

* * *

 **And episode 2 is underway! Again, let me know if this multiple perspectives thing is working in the reviews, alright?**

 **...**

 **...Oh yeah, I don't do those chapter teasers anymore. Those don't really work in my opinion now.**


	2. Arrival

**Hey. So...this is probably the longest I've ever gone without finishing a chapter. I'm sorry. I guess it's just that while I'm practically an Undertale otaku, writing in general isn't exactly my thing. I'm not giving up though, this stuff needs to get out there.**

 **Okay, I'll get back you at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

 **Knight Knight**

When I first encountered the humans my associates and I would enlist for our cause, I was surprised at just how knowledgeable they were with regards to the biology, history, and society of monsters. I was aware that such information was being subtly spread outside the city through the use of an independently developed video game, but this was the first instance in which I had met anyone outside Ebott City who had come into contact with the game. Even then, I was not entirely certain that awakening their souls would be a good idea until the night they were attacked by the knife-wielding child.

I don't regret recruiting them, as they seem to have taken any injuries or repercussions of their adventures rather well. Even now, they are doing well to take care of themselves for their first time driving across the country. When we contacted them at 6:00 AM this morning, they were back out in their cars, ready to leave at exactly 7:00. We've been driving for twelve hours now, and we're about an hour away from the city.

"I cannot wait to get out of this car," Astigmatism comments.

"We've been stuck in the car for longer periods of time before," Final remarks.

"Well, normally Knighty's not taking up sixty percent of the front seats the whole time!" Astigmatism argues.

I really wish he wouldn't call me that.

X comes in on our communication device. "Hey, do you guys know where we'll be staying when we get there, by any chance?"

Whimsalot picks up the device and answers back: "MTT Resort. Normally it's nowhere near cheap, but we should be able to get you an employee discount."

"Holy crud that sounds awesome! ...Wait, do they do room keys?"

"Yes, we've been doing that ever since we opened on the surface."

"Okay, good. I was a bit scared for a second."

It is only now that I notice that X's voice is not the only sound being processed through the communication device, so I reach for it next and ask: "What is that sound on your end?"

"Huh? Oh, we're just listening to nightcore over here. I think it's helping Erika stay awake."

"Nightcore...what is that?"

"Oh, it's pretty much when you take any song and just speed it up and raise the pitch. It actually makes things sound more intense/dreamy. I'll have to show you some later."

"I'm interested."

We continue driving until we reach a certain road next to a sign that reads "Do Not Enter," down which I lead the humans.

"Um, are you sure we're supposed to go this way?" Azalea asks.

"Yes, the sign is there to keep untrustworthy humans away from the city."

"Oh my gosh, does that mean we're almost there?"

"It does."

"WHOOOOO I can't wait!"

X speaks next. "Hold on, those walls look really heavily guarded. Are you sure we can get in?"

"Yes, they have allowed some humans to move here before, and they will be especially willing with us escorting you."

"Okay, I guess we'll just see how things go."

When we reach the wall, I stop the car in front of a boom gate and wait while Officer Silvers, who we've known since we'd first begun stopping crime and violence, approaches us. It's rather fortunate that he is stationed here at this time.

I roll down the window to allow the police officer to speak to us. "Good evening, Knight Knight," he greets me.

"Good evening, Officer," I reply.

"You are aware that you're being followed, right?"

"I am. Some of our friends are visiting."

"Friends from where?"

"Texas."

Officer Silvers takes another look at the young adults' cars. "Are their...you know...souls, by any chance..."

"Their souls are awakened," I answer. "We found it to be beneficial to our mission."

"Okay...they are the only ones, right?"

"There was one other, but we dealt with him."

"Alright, now how did you meet these friends of yours?"

I think back to the events of the past few weeks. "We were searching for some humans who could help us stop an outlaw, but of course we needed someone who was already familiar with monsters and would not expose us. These five were the optimal choice."

"I see. Give me a minute to talk to them, and then I'll let you go."

 **X**

Oh crud, the police officer is coming to talk to us. But then what do I expect of a secret city like this?

Erika turns off the music and rolls down her window so the officer can talk to us. "Alright guys, I'm going to cut to the chase. This is not your average tourist attraction." (Darn right.) "Normally we wouldn't just let people drive right in and endanger our fellow dominant race, but since you've already driven this far and you already know so much, I'll make an exception. But there are some conditions. No taking pictures, no video or audio recordings, no bringing out anything magical (except those watches, I'll let you keep those if you'll be careful with them), and above all, you were never here. The minute you step back outside these walls, it's all headcanons and fan theories. Got it?"

"Understood," I announce.

"This secret is safe with us," Erika assures.

"Thank you. You guys have fun, I'll let you in in a minute."

The police officer heads over to Darius's car, apparently to tell him and Minerva the same stuff he told us.

"This is taking too long I wanna see some monsters!" Azalea squeals.

"Yeah, I don't think any amount of time would qualify as fast enough in this situation," I remark.

"Can you two...chill a little?" Erika requests, leaning on the steering wheel. "The past few days have been really hard for me."

"Sorry," I tell her, "but seriously, we're about to go inside Ebott City! There are freaking monsters here!"

"Listen, I'm excited too, but right now all I want to do is get some sleep. We've got the whole week to do fun things."

"Alright fine, we'll shut up," I tell her. Looks like the officer is done lecturing the others, so now he's headed back over to the wall, aaand...we're clear! We follow the Shadow Guard into the city, which turns out to be some distance from the wall. But once we get into town, it pretty much looks like a normal town, except with a lot more police cars.

Minerva comes in on the walkie-talkie. "Hey, what's with all the freaking police cars everywhere?"

Whimsalot answers. "Well, there were a lot of hate crimes towards monsters when we first got to the surface, so they had to increase law enforcement nearly tenfold."

Seriously? Get it together, humanity! Ah well, at least they took care of it.

"Oh my gosh, X, look!" Azalea says, grabbing my arm and pointing out her window. I look outside and watch us drive right by Grillby's.

"Oh, _yes,_ add that to our list of things we need to do here," I comment.

"Alright, MTT Resort is just up ahead, so get ready to unpack," Whimsalot tells us. He is right, and...whoa. It's a very bright pink, tall hotel place with a silver statue of Mettaton in some glamorous pose in front.

"Dang, this place is fancy-looking," I comment. "Seriously, how did I not see it literally a mile away?"

"Whatever, let's just go inside, I'm ready to go to sleep already," Erika requests.

Once we find parking spots, we get out of the car and grab our suitcases and stuff from the trunk, and then meet up with Darius, Minerva, and the Shadow Guard, who are all stretching hard (Reaper Bird is doing some weird shapeshifting thing).

"Crap, I just realized that I forgot to exercise yesterday," Minerva announces.

"You did do some push-ups though, didn't you?" Azalea points out.

Minerva gestures to her very physically fit self. "You think this comes from doing a few push-ups? No, I'm talking about a full thirty-minute workout routine every freaking day. I'll show you when we get inside."

The automatic doors open for us as we enter the lobby, where that same monster with the gray and red hand-shaped head from the game is waiting for us at the front desk.

"Hey guys! Back already?" they greet us.

"Yep! Abracadabra!" Madjick responds.

"We got kind of lucky," Astigmatism explains. "This one didn't take quite as long as we thought it would."

"Anyways, can we get a discount for our friends here on a large room?" Whimsalot asks.

"Yeah, just give me a minute. Is this their first time here?"

"Yep," I answer.

"You're going to love it. Monster hotel beds are infused with this restorative magic that pretty much guarantees that you won't wake up on the wrong side of the bed, so to speak. At first they were so energizing that they were keeping humans awake at night, but we fixed that. There's also a restaurant right over there and a pool out back if you're interested."

Madjick pays for our room and gives us our room keys, all through telekinesis. Then we all take the elevator (a rather tight fit) up to the fourth floor, where our room happens to be located, and find our room.

Once we get inside, we start looking around. We find that our room consists of a small living room area with couches and a TV, a small kitchen area with a fridge, toaster, microwave and oven, a dining table, and two bedrooms, each with a queen-size bed and a bathroom. Score.

"Sorry everyone, but I call the couch tonight," Erika announces, lying down.

"Well, we're going to have to leave now," Final tells us. "We need to turn in that laser to the authorities."

"Wait! One quick magic trick," Madjick says. "Everyone get out your wallets."

"Uh, okaaayyy..." I say, feeling rather sketchy about this as I reach into my pocket for my wallet. I open it and...there's an extra hundred dollar bill in it.

"Holy crap! Guys, do it, you won't regret it!" I tell the others, who all get out their wallets and find that same sweet bling.

"Wow! Thanks so much guys!" Azalea says to the Shadow Guard.

"You're welcome," Final replies. "Have fun and stay safe."

The Shadow Guard heads off towards the elevator while we human teenagers get familiar with our home away from home for the next week. Personally I was happy with having an equal share to a hotel room in the first place, but one this big in freaking MTT Resort is just that much more awesome.

"Anybody wanna do anything before we turn in for the night?" Darius asks as Minerva steps into one of the bedrooms and starts doing burpees.

"I don't know, I kinda just wanted to see how it feels to sleep in these hotel beds," Azalea answers.

"Yeah, that sounds pretty good to me too," I comment. "I think I'm just going to go get ready for bed now."

"...Okay, guess I'll...hook my phone up to the wi-fi while you do that, then," Darius tells me.

I grab my pajamas from my suitcase and head into the bathroom of the other bedroom. At this point I remember seeing an arcade place not far away on the way here. That would probably be a good place to go to have some fun and meet some people, maybe. Heck, I don't care whether or not we end up playing any games there or anything, arcades are just awesome places to hang out.

Once I'm finished, I step out of the bathroom and tell Azalea, who's watching Minerva work out, that it's her turn. She takes the bathroom while I go to keep Darius company.

"Enjoying the wi-fi?" I ask.

"No, actually I don't we can use it," he replies. "It says I need put in some sort of license number or something."

"Dang it, that sucks," I comment. "Guess we might as well plug in our phones for the night then. Maybe we can get wi-fi somewhere else around town later."

I get out my charger and plug my phone into the wall, and then start messing around with my phone until I feel a hand on my shoulder.

"Oh yeah, we were going to go to sleep now," I point out, heading towards the bedroom with Azalea. "Good night, guys."

"Night," Darius says back.

Suddenly I feel like I need to say one more thing. "Wait, sorry, I don't want to sound like your mom or anything, but we're still in a hotel room, still only dating, still only sixteen-"

"X, dude, relax. That's not happening, you can trust us."

"Alright, sorry. Good night."

Azalea and I head over into what I guess is our bedroom now and get into bed, slightly less awkwardly than last time. We take a second to get into comfortable positions and just lie there for a minute, until eventually Azalea speaks up. "X...do you think maybe the bed doesn't work as well when there's two of us?"

"I don't know, I honestly didn't think about that," I respond. "But even if it doesn't, I think it's worth it."

"Yeah...I think so too."

I put my arm around Azalea, and she does the same to me. And honestly, I can't remember ever voluntarily moving out of that position that night.

* * *

 **I've got to thank you guys real quick. Every time I notice some extra views after not updating for a while, or get a positive review (not to brag, but I don't appear to have gotten any negative ones yet), it shows me how much people enjoy my work and that I haven't been completely forgotten. Without some of you, this chapter may have been blown off for another month or two. Thanks so much for keeping me going. Right now, I do want to try to update more often. As usual, I can't make any promises...well, actually, that's not true. I promise I won't give up on this anytime soon.**


	3. Provocation

**Aaand another chapter for you.**

* * *

 **Whimsalot**

"So how about about those human kids?" Madjick asks us as we start the car. "Do you guys think they're cool? I think they're cool."

"They have been pretty reliable," I answer. "They can do what we need them to do and tell us what we need to know." What I don't say out loud is that I found Erika especially interesting to work with.

"Didn't they say that they each picked their own weapon for defending themselves?" Astigmatism points out. "Sounds like they at least know how to specialize. Anyway, I'm hungry, do we have time to stop for something to eat?"

"Sure," Knight Knight replies. "How would you feel about tacos?"

"Sounds good to me," Astigmatism answers. "Make sure to get me a physical one."

"Don't forget my fire sauce," Final reminds us.

On the way to the lab, we pull into the drive-thru of our favorite taco place. I never really mentioned it to the others, but tacos have been one of my favorite foods ever since I first tried one after the barrier was broken. Of course, I try not to let things like food cloud my mind during times when lives are on the line. Fortunately, this is not one of those times. Once we receive our food, I take off the bottom part of my mask, sort out my taco and carefully dig into it.

Once we get back on the road, I take a minute to look around our hometown. When we first got to the surface, I was somewhat surprised to find out that humans were not all that much different from monsters, even if they are slightly more selfish. The good ones, anyway. The others will join them eventually once we show them that their ways of life are not appreciated and that they would be happier if they chose work and get along with others.

A few minutes later, we arrive at the city's laboratory for magical sciences at the base of Mount Ebbot, a small brick building on the outside, but possessing extensive underground floors. I've actually never been inside, so this information is only second-hand for me.

"Alright, Reaper and I will take care of this," Astigmatism announces, opening the passenger seat door. "Back in a minute."

 **Astigmatism**

I head around to the back of the car and open the trunk, releasing Reaper Bird, my part-sibling. While they reform themself, I hoist the laser out and carry it towards the lab, knocking on the door once I get it there. A few seconds later, the door is opened by Dr. Gaster, a tall skeleton monster in a black lab coat.

"Can I help you?" he asks.

"Hi, is Dr. Alphys there?" I inquire.

"Unfortunately, she is not. Shall I pass on a message or something to her?"

"Uh, no, actually. We found something that you might want to have a look at." I hold up the laser.

Dr. Gaster nearly jumps back in surprise. "Where did you get that? Those haven't been authorized for use by anyone!"

"I can explain! I'm not the one who stole it, if that's what you're thinking," I tell him.

"Just...bring it inside and we'll get this all sorted out," he instructs.

Dr. Gaster holds open the door while Reaper Bird and I head inside, and then starts leading us downstairs to his office, containing a desk with his name printed in Wingdings.

"Ah, Reaper Bird," Dr. Gaster greets. "How have things been?"

"PFrientethyogwoaobdout you?" they respond.

"I'm glad," Dr. Gaster remarks as we reach his office. "So, tell me exactly how this rather controversial piece of weaponry came into your possession, then."

This should get interesting. "Well, first of all, have you heard of someone named Chara?" I start while setting the laser on the ground.

"The first human to enter the Underground, that I experimented on several times, who died prematurely of an illness which in turn led to the demise of Prince Asriel? Yes, I am familiar with Chara. Why?"

"Apparently, when that video game about Frisk came out, some humans started a cult based on Chara, and for some reason, they're bent on killing off all of humanity. Anyways, we tracked down a member of that cult, and he had the laser."

Dr. Gaster stops to think for a minute. "Hold on...so you're telling me that these humans played the game and took after Chara's hatred of humanity, of all things?"

"Uh, yeah, pretty much," I answer.

Dr. Gaster eyes narrow. "You do realize that the game takes place during Frisk's time in the Underground, decades after Chara's death, correct?"

"Actually, I've never played it myself, but yeah, that's what I've heard."

"HIewsansotthleyrientgotohtehceuylhtaidstrheeallaser," Reaper Bird confirms.

Dr. Gaster sits down behind his desk and leans his head against his hand. "I swear, humanity is getting worse every time I look," he laments.

"I know," I tell him. "We're working on it. And we did also meet some other humans that played the game and loved it just about as much as you could expect."

"I suppose that is somewhat comforting to know then, is it not?" Dr. Gaster says before looking up again. "Well, then, I will send this laser off to the higher authorities and recommend that they increase security even further tomorrow morning. Have a good night."

"You too, glad to help," I say to him as Reaper Bird and I set out on our way back outside.

Well, that went okay. Dr. Gaster seemed a little quick to jump to conclusions, but at least he didn't call the police or anything. Hopefully it'll be a little while before we have to worry about the cult again, because right now, I am desperately craving a full night of sleep, and I...actually have to use the bathroom, a feeling I've gotten used to over the past few years, but one that has never been all that pleasant.

"Hey Reaper?" I say, stopping at a restroom. "Tell the others I'll be out in a minute, alright? And thanks for sticking up for me back there."

"TNhoaptrlolbdloem," they reply.

...Love you, sis.

* * *

 **True Partner**

My cell phone's ringing. It says it's from...Texas? Probably a telemarketer or something, but I'll answer it anyway. I have to keep up the charade.

"Hello?" I answer, as politely as possible.

"Is this the True Partner?" the caller asks.

"Who are you?" I demand.

"It's Richards, uh...the Bullet?"

"About d**n time. Ready to explain why you're calling me from ****ing Texas?"

"I was looking for the nukes, but that doesn't matter anymore. Look, everything you said about magic and souls and all that **** is real, you getting this? It's all real!"

"I know that, idiot. I broke into a whole ****ing city full of monsters. Now tell me what you did with the laser!"

"I don't have it."

****! What is wrong with this guy?! "Do you realize what you've done? We were going to use that to start a war!"

"Forget about the laser, alright? The monsters, they know about us. I was going to capture them and kill them but then these stupid kids back stabbed me and...now I'm in prison. This is my one phone call."

Hm. At least now I'll be able to...hold. On.

"Listen closely, you useless idiot. You are going to tell me right now where these monsters are or I swear to Chara I will make it my next mission to annihilate you."

He gives me the address that he says is home to the monsters, as well as those of the human kids who "back stabbed" him.

"Thank you. By the way, don't expect me to break you out. I don't care how good a driver you are, you're as good as dead to me now. Or at least, you will be when I'm through with this world."

"Fine, whatever. Just do something about those monsters."

I hang up. I knew it was a bad idea to introduce the Bullet to our...organization. At the time I had assumed his getaway driving skills would prove useful, but clearly he cares no more for the destruction of the humanity than any random human.

I sit down at my computer, open Undertale, and come face-to-face with a black screen. Just a little while longer, Chara. We'll all join you there soon...starting with those who dared to mess with us.

* * *

 **Okay, so I know that you've all probably got a lot of questions after reading this, but I promise I will get this stuff cleared up soon. No spoilers, though.**

 **Also, as usual, thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!**


	4. Bekfast and Arcade Action

**Holy crap, a whole year. Is anyone even still interested in something like this anymore? Well, if you're reading this now, then that must mean you are, so first of all, thank you so much for reading, and second, to those of you who were reading this over a year ago, I want to apologize for the hiatus. I got a good portion of this chapter written in a decent amount of time, and then I sort of got stuck and gave up. Thankfully, my sister just recently encouraged me to get back on this, and I remembered how much some of you wanted to see some of your favorite characters in my story, so I finished the chapter in about the last 18 hours. Anyways, I think I've rambled on long enough, so here we go, and I'll see you at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

 **Azalea**

Ahhh...what time is it? Oh, there's a digital clock next to the bed that says it's 7:30. Not very late, but not very early. Wait, where did X go? Did he get up before I did? Yep, sounds like he's in the shower, I can hear him singing. Well, that was nice of him to let me sleep.

Speaking of sleep, I slept amazingly well last night. Seriously, I feel like I could run a whole five miles today, almost. I'm going to get up right now, in fact. Actually, X is still in the shower, so I guess I'll wait a little. Instead, I go and get my phone and lie back down while playing Subway Surfers. It might help to practice that game a little for the next time we have a dispute.

"Good morning, Azalea!"

I pause my game, look up and see X exiting the bathroom wearing his jacket, his 8-bit Mario shirt, and jeans. "Oh, hey X!" I greet back. "How are you doing?"

"Pretty freaking awesome, actually," he answers. "They were not lying about the magic in that bed. I bet I have at least, like, 40 HP right now or something."

I laugh and hop out of bed. "Yeah, I'm feeling pretty much the same way. I'm going to go get dressed now, alright?"

"Yeah, sure, I'll go check on the others."

I grab a shirt, jacket, skirt, and underwear from my suitcase while X goes out into the living room, and then lock myself in the bathroom to get dressed. Wow, I should probably also take a shower while I'm in here. Hopefully the others won't mind if I take an extra fifteen minutes...

Okay, I'm done. I exit the bathroom and enter the living room area, where Erika had been sleeping on the couch, and see everyone else having a small conversation.

"Hey Azalea, we were thinking of going and seeing if this place has a breakfast area, are you up for that?" Darius asks me.

"Sure, I'm actually pretty hungry," I reply.

"Cool," X says. "Don't forget your room key."

I step back into the bedroom and grab my phone and wallet off the floor by suitcase, and follow everyone else out the door into the hallway. From there, we find the elevator and ride it down to the bottom floor.

Darius runs out to the dining area the instant the elevator doors open. "Yep, this place looks all set up for breakfast," he announces.

I walk over to see what exactly what he means by that. As I step into the dining area, I notice the lines of tables across opposite sides of the room, one side labeled "Physical" and the other "Magical." The tables are filled with dispensers containing cereal, bagels, juices, bread and toasters, and pretty much everything else included in the average hotel breakfast. In the back is an empty stage, and scattered throughout the room are seating tables.

"I'm going to try some monster food," Erika says.

"Yeah, me too," Minerva seconds.

"Alright, but I should probably warn you guys, it won't fill you up much," X cautions.

X and I split over to the physical side, leaving Erika, Minerva, and Darius to get magical food. I get a bagel and a piece of sausage and fill a styrofoam cup with orange juice while X makes himself a bowl of cereal.

"Oh, you can go sit down if you want, I'm going to need a minute to make some toast," X tells me when he notices me waiting for him.

I find a decent-sized table and sit down to start eating. A few seconds later, Darius, Erika and Minerva join me.

"Alright, first bite of monster food, here we go," Darius says just before cutting himself a bite of a magical sausage patty with a plastic knife and shoving it in his mouth with a plastic fork. He chews for a second and then stops suddenly. "Holy crap, what is this, cotton candy? I barely even have to swallow!"

Erika takes a bite of magical blueberry muffin. "Wow, I want to say that this tastes amazing," she comments, "but I can't tell how much of what I'm feeling actually counts as tasting."

"It's pretty cool, isn't it?" I ask.

Minerva shoves an entire sausage patty into her mouth at once. "Yeah, but I'm hungry, and this stuff shrinks down to, like, nothing as soon as I start eating it."

"What is going on here?" X asks as he approaches the table.

"Bekfast!" Darius exclaims.

I nearly spit out my drink at that. How on Earth are these guys so darn hilarious?

"Oh my gosh, that was perfect!" I remark as soon I'm able to calm down.

"I guess it kinda was, huh?" X replies. "Thanks."

"Anyways, I think I'm going to go get me some real food," Minerva announces, standing up. "You guys can have the rest of this if you want."

Darius and Erika follow her to the physical food, while X grabs Minerva's last magical sausage patty with his fork and bites a large chunk out of it.

"Yep, this stuff is still pretty good," he comments. "You want her muffin?"

"Oh, sure, thanks!" I reply, taking Minerva's chocolate chocolate chip muffin and stuffing it in my face. Whoa, hold on, this is way too tasty for me to eat this fast. However much of it fits in my mouth at the moment quickly starts melting into energy and rushing through my entire body. Tastes just as good, and feels very refreshing, but leaves me hungry for more.

X and I work on eating the rest of our physical food until Darius, Minerva, and Erika come back with theirs. We spend the next few minutes just eating, until Darius gets out his phone.

"Yep, still can't get on the wi-fi," he laments. "So what do you guys think we should do after this?"

"Well, I saw this arcade place not too far away from here," X suggests. "We could probably meet some people there or something, and, I don't know, I guess I kinda just think it'd pretty cool to go there since arcades are all tricked out and stuff, you know?"

"That sounds fun! I like arcades," I comment. Somehow I just can't resist saying something nice to him whenever he starts rambling like that.

"Sure, why not?" Erika chimes in. "It's Spring Break; there's got to be at least some interesting people there."

"Alright, well, let me just finish eating real quick and then we can go back upstairs and get ready," Darius says before doing exactly that.

Once we're all done eating, we all head back up to the room so Darius and Erika can grab their keys and stuff.

"Hey guys," I ask once while we unlock the room, "couldn't we use our powers more often here?"

"Holy crap, you're right!" X exclaims. "How the heck did I forget that? Yeah, bring your watch things, guys!"

I run over to our bedroom, get my watch out of my suitcase, put it on, and activate the magic just for fun. As I do so, my soul starts glowing green on my chest, and my shield appears in front of me. With a little experimentation, I've found that I can move it around almost telepathically, change it's shape, and even make it disappear and reappear, but I can't hold it out any further from me than my arms can reach. It's pretty awesome and fun to mess around with sometimes, but it doesn't seem to be useful for much, and it makes it hard to walk around, so I shut it off and follow X out to the living room area.

"Dang, I gotta get me some shades," X says, noticing that Darius has just put on his sunglasses. "The Sun's pretty bright today."

"Check it out, guys," Minerva calls out, using her red soul to hover around. "I don't even have to walk anymore!"

"Well, yeah, as long as your battery doesn't run out," X points out.

"Well, I'm ready if you guys are," Erika announces.

We all exit the room again and head back to the elevator, Minerva still levitating as X presses the button for the ground floor.

"Minerva, the elevator's going to-" Erika starts to warn, right before the elevator starts moving and the ceiling hits Minerva's head.

"Ow! Dang it!" Minerva reacts, pushing off the ceiling with her arms.

"Okay, now you're going to have extra downward momentum when we stop, so brace yourself," Erika warns her again. Just as predicted, when the elevator stops, Minerva hits the floor, but lands perfectly this time.

"Aaaaand that is why we like gravity," X says.

"Shut up, my powers are still awesome," Minerva fires back, getting off the ground again.

"So...who's gonna be driving?" X asks as we walk outside (wow, the sun is bright today).

"I'll drive," Darius volunteers. "No offense, Erika, but my car looks slightly more awesome."

"None taken," Erika responds.

"But your car is still pretty nice," I add, feeling a little Kindness.

"Thanks."

"Okay, so where did you say this arcade was?" Darius asks X as we load into the car.

"Oh, it should be about a mile straight to the left," X answers. "We won't miss it."

Darius gets us out of the parking lot and starts driving in the direction we come from. "Alright, let's see what's up in this direction, then," he says.

"...Holy dang, I still cannot...freaking...believe...that we're actually here," X suddenly announces.

"I know, right?" I reply. "It's weird; it almost feels like we're at a convention or something, except this is an actual place where people live and everything is completely real and stuff."

"Which means we kinda have to act normal and stuff like everyone else, right?" X continues.

"Well, it's not like we're here illegally or anything," Minerva points out. "We're just a bunch of people here on vacation."

"Yeah, X, we'll be fine, don't worry," Darius assures. "Is this the arcade right here?"

"Yep, that's it."

"Dang, we could have walked here with it being this close," Darius comments. "Alright, let's go inside."

 **Darius**

After I lock the car, we all march straight into the front doors of the arcade. From what I can tell right off the bat, this is one of those places where you buy a game card, win tickets and trade them for prizes. And not only does this place have all the flashy lights and epic atmosphere you could ask for in a place, I can see at least as many monsters as humans here. And if I've learned anything from Undertale, it's that monsters are awesome.

"Hold on, I'm going to go see what kinds of games they have real quick," X says before running over to the games.

"Hey, let me know you meet any cool monsters!" I call out after him. Dang, I can't tell if he heard me. Guess I'll go buy myself a card.

I step ahead of the others to the front counter and purchase a card with ten dollars' worth of points of it; it won't get me much, but I'm here more to chill with monsters than to win loot off of games. Minerva buys herself a card, and then X comes sprinting back.

"Guys, they've got a Crossy Road machine here!" he says excitedly. "You know what this means? I'm gonna freaking profit!"

"Uh, I don't find that likely, X," Erika responds. "I mean, does it really pay out that much?"

"If you score high enough, yeah," X answers before stepping up to the counter and buying twenty-five dollars' worth of points for twenty dollars.

"Well, I guess I won't stop you from playing games at an arcade," Erika says as X runs back off to the games. "Actually, I should probably also look at the games before I spend any money."

"X, come on, wait for me!" Azalea calls out as she buys her card and runs ahead, leaving me and Minerva still standing around.

"So...what do you want to do first?" I ask her.

"Let's play some games," she answers. "Bet I can win more tickets than you."

"Alright, it's on, then. But you should know that the more awesome the thing, the better I am at it."

"Yeah, I knew that. That's why this is going to be fun."

With that, Minerva runs off to all those bright, flashy machines. Now, I've used that last joke before, but sometimes that's what makes it funny. As for me, I find my way to the skee ball machines, which, as expected, are off in the corner. Skee ball doesn't pay out many tickets, but like I said I'm not in it for the prizes. One lane is being played by an orange monster with a circular head, one eye and four limbs stretching out in different directions in an X shape. Looks like a fun person-I scan my card in the lane to the the right of theirs, and set my . By the way, did I mention I'm straight up awesome at skee ball?

As soon as the balls roll out, I snag one and slide it straight up the middle of the ramp, landing it straight in the 40,000 point hole. I pump my arm in celebration and roll another ball, which gets me 30,000. With my next shot I decide to aim for 50,000. I put a bit of extra power into my throw, but my aim must have been off, because I miss and end up with 10,000. Better than nothing.

I take this next moment to look over and see how the X-shaped monster is doing. He grabs what's apparently his last ball with one of his top arms, leans sideways, bends his arm downwards, and lets go as he's bringing his arm back up. The ball rolls smoothly along the track and pockets itself in the top center hole, the one worth 50,000, putting his score at 460,000. And I thought I was good.

"Dude, you're awesome at this!" I compliment him.

"Thank you," he says in a surprisingly high-pitched but still somewhat masculine voice. "Did you notice how sweet my balance is?"

"Well, I guess it would have to be pretty sweet for you to be so good at skee ball, so yeah."

"Yay! Well, time to get a sweet drink," he says before grabbing his tickets, stuffing them in the little backpack he's wearing, and cartwheeling towards the food counter. Wait a minute, I don't think that dude had a mouth, or at least I couldn't see one on him. Maybe he was doing that magical voice thing, like Knight Knight does. Oh well, back to skee ball.

By the end of the game, I've got a of 340,000; I'm awesome at hitting the holes in the middle, but I also took a couple of shots at the 100,000 pockets in the corners, which are _small,_ so of course I missed those. Well, now I'm up for another game, so I grab my...wait...crap. The guy in the lane to my right put his card right next to mine and I can't tell them apart. He's a human by the way, and he looks like he's maybe a year or two older than I am.

"Hey dude," I ask him, "do you know which of these two cards is yours?"

He looks over at the cards on the machine. "Dang, I don't know man. Well, my card started with 40 points, and all I've done so far is one game of this, so it should have...37.9 points left. How about yours?"

"Same actually," I respond, pleasantly surprised. "I guess I could just grab either one, then."

"Wait a second," he adds. "You could do that, or we could make it interesting. You and me, Flappy Tickets, winner gets both cards. How about it?"

Well, that came out of nowhere. I decide to take a minute to think it over. One one hand, I don't really need another card full of points if I pace myself, and if I lose, then I just paid ten bucks for about two bucks' value. On the other hand, just because I don't have a card doesn't mean I can't hang out, and if I won, Minerva would probably like it if I gave her the extra card. Plus this competiton would be pretty sick in and of itself.

"You're on," I tell the other guy, heading towards Flappy Tickets with him following behind.

Flappy Tickets is basically another Flappy Bird ripoff, as if enough of those don't already exist. The main difference here, aside from paying tickets, is that Flappy Tickets allows two people to play at once and is a little easier. Also, it's right next to Crossy Road, where X and Azalea are just standing there while-

"Whoa, duuude!" I yell out, seeing that a _huge_ pile of tickets is snaking out of the machine in front of X. "How many tickets does that game even give?!"

"One per point you score, plus five hundred if you score high enough, which I did," X responds coolly. "Should be the same for Flappy Tickets."

"Cool, because I'm about to wipe the floor with this guy in Flappy Tickets," I quip. "Wanna watch?"

"Sure, as soon as my tickets finish rolling out."

"Oh, I'll watch your tickets for you and then I think I'm going to go see if I can find Erika and Minerva," Azalea suggests, which X thankfully agrees to.

"Alright, let's do this," I announce. "Ready to get owned, good sir?" My boasting is all talk, by the way; I've played Flappy Bird a lot when it was popular, but that doesn't mean I'm any good at it.

"Born ready," my opponent replies. "Good luck-you'll need it."

Together we swipe our cards and hit the start button. As the game starts, I realize that it's hard to focus when my bird overlaps my opponent's, but I just focus that much harder. The pipes start off pretty far apart, but about ten points in, the gaps settle in at about the size I'm used to. Oh, and apparently there are red and white striped pipes that are worth five points, but it's not like that matters in a game like this; whoever dies first loses.

30 points and the competition is still on. A high gap immediately followed by a low gap almost gets both of us, but we hang on.

"X, Darius! Look over there!" Azalea suddenly calls out.

"Dang it, not now, I'm concentrating!" I snap back, probably more rudely than necessary.

"Yeah, just give us a second, alright?" X pleads.

"Oh, sorry...I just thought-"

"It's fine, you can show us after this game."

50 points now. The other guy is nailing it, while I'm barely avoiding the pipes. Maybe if I try to stay directly on top of him, I'll be fine.

Aaand he just crashed into an upper pipe.

"D**N IT!" the dude shouts, startling me and making me crash into the very next set of pipes. "Well, I've got more money...here you go man."

He hands over his card; I take it and shake his hand. "That was a good game, man."

"Right back at you," he says before walking off.

"Well that was awesome," X speaks up. "Now Azalea, what did you want us to see?"

Azalea answers "Well a second ago I thought I saw-"

Suddenly we're interrupted by someone tapping on my back and a small voice asking "Hey, are these your tickets?"

I turn around and end up face-to-face with a kid with narrow eyes, longish brown hair, and a blue and pink striped shirt.

* * *

 **Again, I'm sorry to my old fans (however many or few of you there are) for not updating in forever, and I hope I can keep writing for a while longer, especially after this abrupt cliffhanger. I can't promise you anything, but if I was able to type up 40% of this chapter in a day, then the next chapter shouldn't be so hard either. Thnaks for reading, and don't forget to review!**


End file.
